LA Valiant’s Noah Whinston, Players Now Have a Clearer Path to Becoming Pro

While some fans and critics think that the Overwatch League was stuck in the mud in term of creating and starting the world’s premier Overwatch league, Noah Whinston, owner of the Los Angeles Valiant, has a different perspective. The successful esports owner, who also owns the Immortals brand, has an idea of how much time and effort it takes to start something of this magnitude and is very surprised at the speed in which the league went from planning to execution.

“I think Overwatch League went from a concept to an execution really really quickly,” Whinston said. “I think not a lot of people including myself never anticipated.”

The Overwatch League was announced at Blizzcon in November 2016 and will officially launch their first regular season matches on Wednesday, January 10 when the San Francisco Shock play the Los Angeles Valiant.

Whinston knew he wanted to be a part almost immediately.

“When we first heard of Activision’s plans about the league, we were surprised at how ambitious and forward thinking they were being,” Whinston related. “And so when we went from making the first decision about commitment to being in the Overwatch League, it went quick.”

However, there is another big reason Whinston wanted to participate in Overwatch League. With the addition of the Contenders League, there will be more opportunities for more player’s to become pro.

“Going forward players now have a much clearer idea of, here are the paths you need to take to become pro.”